Essay about False Perception of Equality in Society

Fourteen year old Harrison Bergeron is a passionate character that symbolizes equality in society during the year of 2081. Harrison rebels against the government in a way that shows how everyone in “Harrison Bergeron” was not absolutely equal. This community and its citizens has lost its rights after the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution. Everyone was not actually equal in the story since people could not use their own intelligence, express their true beauty, and display their strengths. The citizens were scared of the United States Handicapper General and they do not have the freedom to be themselves.

The year is 2081, Hazel and George Bergeron are sitting in their living room watching television. The Constitutional Amendments has made everyone equal and handicapped, so no one person is better or worse than the rest. Hazel and George watch the masked and weighted down ballerinas dance across the screen. Any time George thinks about his son, Harrison, and his arrest, the handicaps in his head go off. Fourteen year old Harrison had been

The story of “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is about a dystopian future of America that forces its citizens to be completely equal. The way that they enforce the rules is by forcing the strong to wear weights and the intelligent to be given mental handicaps. The style of writing Vonnegut uses to portray his story of equality is very subtle. Vonnegut uses diction, imagery, and syntax, to help the reader understand the characters, mood, and visuals.

The main conflict of the story is between Harrison Bergeron and the government. Harrison disagrees with the government’s way of controlling and handicapping society, especially since he has been given several handicaps. Harrison does not believe one should be limited, however, he is

Picture a society, far in the future, where everyone, by government control, must be on the same level. Would this be Hell or a utopia? This is the subject of Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron”. In this society, the gifted, strong, and beautiful are required to wear multiple handicaps of earphones, heavy weights, and hideous masks. In turn, these constraints leave the world equal, or arguably devoid of, from brains to brawn to beauty. With the constant push for equality among all people, Vonnegut reveals a world that society is diligently working toward. “Harrison Bergeron” is written as a form of satire with heavy irony, to demonstrate the clear difference between equity and equality in society. “Harrison Bergeron” is

Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if everyone was legally forced into the governments opinion of equality? In Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s short story "Harrison Bergeron", it is the year 2081 and the government has altered society to be mentally, physically and socially equal. The beautiful people are covered with hideous masks, the intelligent people wear ear pieces that let off loud obnoxious sounds at random to throw off there thought process and the strong people wear weights to be equal to the weaker people. The society is not equal because no one can truly be changed unless they want to be. Putting a handicap on an intelligent person does not make him or her equal to an average person,

The author wants to get our attention to the major differences from the present world to Harrison Bergeron’s world and examine the notable similarities in both as well. The opposition of knowledge and power versus suppression and ignorance are used by the author to satirize the society because who has the knowledge also, has the power. The more knowledge the government has and does not share it with the population, the easier is to control people and their minds. For example when Hazel watches her son die on television after performing a beautiful dance that theoretically could have brought about radical change, and instead of gaining even an ounce of understanding, she ends where she begun. When George asked her why she had tears in her eyes, her memory had already failed her, but she takes his advice to simply forget sad things, commenting that she always does.

Kurt Vonnegut’s unique story “Harrison Bergeron,” displays a theme which is a warning about the dangers of equality, which is equality is a hindrance to an individual’s success and society’s success, but this hindrance is ironically, unequal. In the story, Harrison and his bride are arrested for their unwillingness and inability to stay within the bounds of equality enforced by the Handicapper General. Equality hinders the success of an individual like the weights hinder the beauty and grace of the ballerinas in the story. Equality doesn’t promote everyone to be equally better, but to be unequally worse. Handicaps are no use in ensuring equality, because one’s strengths will always shine through, such as Harrison’s strength and wit, or the

Harrison is the perfect example of this kind of rebellion. Although he is only fourteen, “he is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous” (141). Due to his abilities, he is in prison because he is a threat to society. Harrison is aware that a new society must emerge, and he breaks out of prison, removes his handicaps, and for just a moment, shows his individuality. In the government’s eyes, Harrison is a rebel, and rebels are people that have no place in society, and must die. Diana Moon Glampers, who is the Handicapper General and represents conformity, kills Harrison and his selected mate with whom he wanted to rule a more humane America. She then threatens everyone else with force in the television station with a shotgun by “aiming it at the musicians and told them they have ten seconds to get their handicaps back on” (143). Although Harrison’s actions take place, conformity and equality still rule. In an article in Contemporary American writers, it describes Harrison’s parents after the murder, “They resume their passive, acquiescent lives; having forgotten the entire scene almost as soon as they witnessed it” (2396). This dehumanization is the result of government oppression, as well as the physical punishment that awaits if anyone tries to be rebellious like Harrison Bergeron.

Harrison Bergeron is a story written by Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut’s story is a warning to the world about the quest of equality, which is spreading all round in many nations with America on the lead. The story shows the reader how the equality issue can have negative impacts on people’s individuality, and the society. The story revolves around the protagonist, Harrison Bergeron who is an archetypical symbol that represents defiance, and individuality. He is used to represent the people who will stand up, and protest against cruel laws imposed by the state on equality, and encourage others to protest with him. Through the characterization of Harrison, George and Hazel, Vonnegut shows how the equality idea can go to the extreme. The

Kurt Vonnegut published “Harrison Bergeron” to express his thoughts of what a world with equality might look like. The setting of this takes place in front of a TV to emphasis how much is it looked to for answers. The government wants everyone the same and will go to any means necessary. In the constitution, “all men are created equal” can be found, and this short story explores the ideas of when that sentence is taken too literal. In “Harrison Bergeron,” Vonnegut paints his readers a picture illustrating the dangers of conforming three different individuals, Hazel, George, and Harrison, to the same level of expectation through the power of government control and television.

In this story a man and woman, George and Hazel Bergeron, have a son whose name is Harrison. In this futuristic world, people are meant to all be treated as equals, which is where the theme of the story comes from. It is much like the movie Equilibrium. If you are too intelligent, they dumb you down, as with George Bergeron they have an earpiece implanted that randomly makes noises in order to distract his thought process. Those who are too beautiful are made to look disfigured and those who are graceful or strong have to weight themselves down in order to have less appealing stature. Harrison had been taken away from the Bergeron parents, and when they were sat down watching television, an announcement came on

Harrison Bergeron, a short story by Kurt Vonnegut, is not written for the light reader. This story of equality shows deeply of how horrid it would be to be born special, different, smarter, faster, stronger, etc, in a world where you are forced to be equal. Despite the usual connotation of the word equality, Kurt Vonnegut looks at the cost of making everyone be the same. He has shown through his words the torture you must endure in order to make you the same as everyone else, being a radio intending to scatter your thoughts, weights to weigh you down, or even a hideous, grotesque, mask used to hide your charming face. After you’ve lived with these handicaps a man, named Harrison Bergeron, trying to change how things are interrupts your show.

The point of view in “Harrison Bergeron” is third person with limited insight. The focal character is George Bergeron, the titular character’s father. The story is written to show two settings: the living room of George and Hazel Bergeron, and the scene they are watching on their television. This point of view helps to develop the theme by showing what we assume to be an average couple in a futuristic setting, and by establishing a societal norm for the dystopian setting. The mundane point of view contrasts nicely with the very outrageous personality of Harrison Bergeron and his theatrical antics. This point of view also gives the reader a relatively objective look into the conflict between Harrison and the United States Handicapper General. The use of George as the focal character gives the reader insight into the mind of a man who wears a mental and a physical handicap. This allows the reader to see into George’s thoughts and how they process with the mental handicap in place, “every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking advantage of their

In one of the numerous published examples of that, Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., the ‘Handicapper General’, head of making everybody equal, basically, puts handicaps on the citizens that bring them all to the same low level of intelligence and strength.